Development and Usability Testing of a Consultation System for Diabetic Retinopathy Screening

Abstract

This study aims to develop a novel web-based decision support system for diabetic retinopathy screening and classification of eye fundus images for medical officers. The research delivers diabetic retinopathy information with a web-based environment according to the needs of the users. The proposed research also intends to evaluate the developed system usability to the target users. The complex characteristics of diabetic retinopathy signs contribute to the difficulty in detecting diabetic retinopathy. Therefore, professional and skilled retinal screeners are required to produce accurate diabetic retinopathy detection and diagnosis. The proposed system assists the communication and consultation among the medical experts in the hospital and the primary health cares located at the health clinics. The agile software development model is the methodology used for the development of this research project. The project collaborates with the Department of Ophthalmology, Hospital Melaka, Malaysia for the medical content expertise and testing. Representative medical officers from Hospital Melaka and all the public health clinics in Melaka were involved in the preliminary study and system testing. This research study consists of a web development producing an interactive web-based application of diabetic retinopathy consultation which comprises image processing and editing features as a core of the system. It is envisaged that this research project will contribute to the management of diabetic retinopathy screening among medical officers.